Flames stop Wild, 3-1 Huberdeau ends eight-game drought

In St Paul, the Flames continued a rebound with a 3-1 win over the Wild on Tuesday night.

Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves in the win.

Calgary moved to 16-16-5 off their second straight win.

“It was a win. Maybe we’ll put it that way,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “For the first two periods, I thought we did some good things. Third period, we were on our heels for a lot of it. Thankfully, we had a goaltender that was on his game tonight because I think he allowed us to get the two points.”

Calgary took a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza when Andrew Mangiapane  scored at 11:40 on a 4-on-4.

There was a Jonathan Huberdeau  sighting in the game, he scored with 24 seconds left in the fist to push the Flames ahead, 2-0 entering the middle frame.

“It felt good. It’s been a while,” said Huberdeau, who hadn’t scored since Nov. 20. “I think lately we’ve been playing better, so I think it was good to get chemistry on our line, too. That one obviously felt good, and especially to finish it off with a win.”

The Wild dropped to 16-16-4 off their fourth straight loss.

Pat Maroon was the lone striker for the Wild.

“I thought the second and third period we dictated the game and gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “Unfortunately tonight … the puck didn’t go in for us. I thought their goaltender was excellent. We had enough saves in our net to win the game, but I really felt that there was lots of good in the game. Unfortunately, (we) didn’t win tonight.”

Maroon scored midway through the second to trim the deficit to 2-1.

“There’s no real kinks in our game,” Maroon said. “We’re still playing good hockey. The first period shot us in the foot, and then you’re playing catch up.

“We’re still building here. We’re doing a lot of good things. We’re trending in the right direction. We’ve just got to find a way to get out of this little losing streak here. We got a big game against Tampa coming up (on Thursday). We just have to come out and play a full 60.”

Blake Coleman hit an empty net with 57 seconds left on the regulation clock for the 3-1 final count.

“I thought we had a good start, especially in this building,” Huberdeau said. “It’s not easy. After that, I think they pushed back. We knew that was going to happen. ‘Marky’ stood up. Guys were blocking shots. That’s the kind of team we are: resiliency. We came up with a huge win.”

Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves in the loss.